In Ivory Coast, an 18-year-old has been hospitalized for a few days. Now it is clear: she has Ebola. The WHO is concerned.
Abidjan – It was not until June 19 that the country of Guinea and the World Health Organization (WHO) gave the all-clear: The Ebola outbreak, in which twelve people had died since February 14, had ended. Now a message from the neighboring country of Ivory Coast is causing new concerns. A young woman from Guinea has recently been treated in the Ivorian city of Abidjan – she was infected with the Ebola virus.
This was reported by the WHO on Sunday night (14/15 August). According to the health organization of the African Union, the affected 18-year-old had traveled overland from Guinea to Abidjan and was hospitalized there on August 12 after a fever attack. She has now been isolated. It was the first Ebola case in Ivory Coast since 1994, said the WHO.
First Ebola case in Ivory Coast in 27 years – relation to outbreak in Guinea unclear
The fact that the case occurred in a metropolis like Abidjan was “extremely worrying,” said WHO regional director Matshidiso Moeti according to the dpa. A team of WHO experts should now help the West African state with contact tracing and treatment. The WHO currently has no evidence to suggest that the case is linked to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea at the beginning of the year.
A vaccination should now also protect against the life-threatening disease. Now 5,000 doses of Ebola vaccine, which were intended for the fight against the epidemic in Guinea, are to be brought to the Ivory Coast, according to the daily news from the WHO.
Ivory Coast reports Ebola infection – according to WHO, the death rate of the virus is between 25 and 90 percent
The last time there was a major Ebola epidemic between 2014 and 2016. At that time, 28,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were infected and more than 11,000 died. In the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an outbreak with around 2,300 deaths was declared over in June 2020 after almost two years, reports the dpa. Another person died of the disease there in February of this year. In addition, Guinea only reported the first death from the Marburg virus at the beginning of the week (August 9th). It belongs to the same family as the Ebola virus.
Those who get Ebola can suffer from fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, internal bleeding and ultimately organ failure, writes the Tagesschau. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person. According to the WHO, the death rate from past epidemics was between 25 and 90 percent. (mp / dpa)
List of rubric lists: © Frederick Murphy / dpa
